If you're like us, you've probably heard about the recent release that's hit you right in the feels. With nostalgia pumping through your veins as some form of warped adrenaline, you've paraded with wild abandon and a weird amount of intensity to recapture those sweet Pokemon you thought only existed in your past.

You've probably encountered a strange phenomenon too. People walking through parks, outside, smiling, and actually enjoying themselves! Real life interaction! It's crazy stuff. Pokemon GO has opened up a world of adventure and it's damn awesome.

Today, our latest adventure was taking a stroll through Ponsonby during lunch time, hitting up Western Park, dropping down some lures, and having a few chats with other trainers while catching ourselves a few Golducks.

And thankfully there's an endless stream of hilarious memes that surround the game as well.

Finally, you've probably also experienced a lot of FOMO as your friends and colleagues post their insanely awesome Pokemon and you're sitting there with 20 Zubats.

So we wanted to do a quick guide to show you how to get the most out of the game in the shortest amount of time possible. This is a quick start guide for anyone playing Pokemon GO, those that are playing the game but haven't quite figured everything out, and finally for those who just don't have the time to walk around Auckland Domain all day.

Your priority for most people in the game is leveling. The higher your level, the stronger the Pokemon you catch are (their CP). Pokemon also become rarer, and the game generally becomes easier as you start getting great balls, hyper potions and other kick-ass items that make the game more fun!

You also get awesome things like Incense, Lucky Eggs, Lure Modules, and potentially Incubators when you level just to top it all off.

So the big question quickly becomes, how to do you level as fast as possible? But before we jump into that, let's cover a few basics first.

Special Items

Incense: "Incense with a mysterious fragrance that lures wild Pokémon to your location for 30 minutes."

Egg Incubator: "A device that incubates an Egg as you walk until it is ready to hatch. Breaks after three uses."

Lure Module: "A module that attracts Pokémon to a PokéStop for 30 minutes. Other people around the PokéStop can also benefit from the effect."

There's definitely a real money element here, and those willing to pay will level faster. Remember though, you will also get free items when you level which is yet another reason to focus on levelling first.

Gaining Experience in Pokemon GO

Below are all the ways to earn experience in Pokemon GO.

Catching a Pokémon you already have gives you 100 XP.

Evolving Pokémon gives you 500 XP.

Catching a new Pokemon gives you 500 XP bonus and another 100 XP for capturing it.

You'll gain experience for beating gyms (if it's an opposing teams colour) or training at gyms (if it's your team colour). This is determined by how many Pokemon you beat but is roughly 70 XP per win.

Finally you gain experience for good throws (10 XP for a nice, 20 XP for a great and 100 XP for an excellent throw).

Also, it's really important to note that PokeStops actually refresh every 5 minutes so if you're lucky enough to work or live near one, you're going to be collecting a lot of free stuff!

How To Level Quickly

The two important things are stacking buffs and transferring doubles (we've included how to do this near the bottom of this guide). Also, capture everything you come across (even if it's another Zubat).

Basically, I would activate an Incense and a Lure Module at a PokeStop since they stack and spend 30 minutes catching all the Pokemon in the area.

Also note that although there's an indication on the bottom right of what you'll catch, you can catch rare Pokemon in any area. I apparently only had only Zubats in one area but managed to catch a Meowth, a Jigglypuff, and a Grimer as well.

You'll also want to start evolving your Pokemon with the lucky egg activated as well. I managed to evolve 8 Pokemon during one 30 minute session with a lucky egg which skyrocketed my experience. On the flip side, if you don't have a lucky egg activated, be patient. Wait until you can evolve a few at once, chuck on that lucky egg and watch those levels increase.

Other Important Tips

Candy and Stardust

Save your Candy and Stardust for later on in the game. I quickly used up all my Stardust on my 30 CP Pidgey, getting it all the way to 78 CP only to catch a 200 CP Pidgey when I leveled up.

When you're sitting around level 10, then you can start to spend the Stardust on one Pokemon without running out too quickly. Note though that you're probably going to be replacing that Pokemon anyway.

Later at level 13, I spent all my Stardust on my Golbat, getting it from 300 CP to 855 CP only to evolve a few Zubats (while I had a lucky egg activated!) into a 665 Golbat. The best advice here is just to save, save, save until you start to plateau in levels or simply get bored and want to start showing off.

Gyms

Ignore them for the most part. You do get bonuses for having a defender be a part of the gym for 20 hours, but since the game is new, most gyms are cycling so quickly you'll only be there for about 40 minutes until your Pokemon is defeated. My suggestion for the time poor players is to ignore gyms until a few weeks down the road when things start to settle.

Common Pokemon

Pokemon like Pidgey and Caterpie are actually amazing. Since they're in their first evolve form, it only costs 12 to evolve them. Other common Pokemon like Rattata and Zubat require 50 which is a lot harder for experience grinding.

Catching Pokemon

The smaller the circle, the more likely you are to catch them is the common consensus among the community, but note that this is only true IF you hit the Pokeball inside the second, smaller circle. As a rule of thumb, aim true and make the circle small (this will also give you a nice experience boost if you do it correctly).

For Pokemon that don't have a green circle (yellow and red are the harder ones), or sit at over 150 CP, either a Razz Berry or a Great Ball will seal the deal. Not too much of a need to save these up, but make sure you have at least 10 of each just in case you hit a rare Pokemon that you absolutely need to capture (Pikachu, I'm talking to you).

Transport

We would never play this game and drive (I've already had someone almost hit me - I saw their head looking down and throwing a Pokeball), but there are some alternatives.

Buses are amazing. Jump on the City Link and go around a few times. Catch the bus to work. There's plenty of PokeStops and Pokemon galore. Another alternative is to get someone else to drive so you can sit there throwing your Pokeballs safe and sound.

Eggs

This has been a popular topic of conversation. I'm sure you've tried to hack the system too with a car or some form of transport, but unfortunately when your friend is driving you around town to hatch those eggs, Pokemon has got us beat.

Pokemon has put a cap on how fast you can be going for it to register and it's around 20 km/h. So unless you're in rush hour traffic (finally, there's a positive to moving slowly!), cruising around at night time with no cars around, or getting on the bike and peddling, you're going to have to go for a run to hatch those eggs quickly.

Transferring Doubles

For transferring your doubles, click into a Pokemon and scroll down to the bottom. Hit that transfer button and go from there!

Finally, note that if your phone is on silent, it will vibrate when a Pokemon is nearby. So you don't need to have your heads buried in your phone the whole time you're outside. You can still chat to friends, have a great time, and you only need to look when you feel it vibrate.

So get out there, do some exercise, and catch some Pokemon! And if you're username is slimedaddy69 and you run the Red Gym near my office, watch out. I'm the new Red gym leader in town.